Platform virtualization is the process in which a host (“host”) may execute virtual machines that that simulate computer hardware for one or more guests processes (“guests”). Each guest is delegated a subset of the hardware resources managed by the host. For example, a host managing dual processors may assign one of the processors to be used exclusively by a guest. Platform virtualization allows for improved management of information technology infrastructure. More specifically, platform virtualization simplifies maintenance because a guest may be quickly reverted to stable state after encountering a fault, and security is enhanced because a compromised guest is isolated from the host and other guests executing on separate virtual machines.
Typically, an administrator and/or the host will determine the hardware resources assigned to virtual machines utilized by one or more guests. However, current virtualization technologies do not include a mechanism to convey the inter-relationships between hardware resources to guests. For example, many modern chipsets provide the relative distances between processors and memories on the physical hardware through the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Static Resource Affinity Table (SRAT), and/or the System Locality Information Table (SLIT). Thus, when using current virtualization technology with Non-Uniform Memory Architecture (NUMA) machines, a virtual machine may be assigned processor and memory resources that are not local to each others resulting in poor guest performance.